Shock adjustment

[J_Dog]

I'm pretty new to this, so bear with me please. I did a search on the site and could not find any other info. My partner at work and I just bought a 7s Ford Ranger that came with 2.5" King Bypass shocks (prerunner model). The original owner said he never adjusted them because they were so much better than what he had before. We went testing for the first time and the truck seemed to kick up in the rear a little off the jumps. Could have been driver error, but seemed to still do it when we felt good off the jump. My question would be, when adjusting the rebound I'm assuming you would lessen it? Also, how many turns should we start with (i.e. is 1 full turn a lot or should we start with more and record results). We are going out testing again on 04/29/02 at Prairie City OHV (Nor. Cal.) the day after the VORRA short course race there. Any suggestions or info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Jeff Matlock

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[Kritter]

Was it kicking off due to bottoming out or too stiff, or too much psi in the bump stops? Elaborate for us.

Kris

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[cleartoy]

IF its the rebound, increase the dampning, which will slow down how fast the shock extends.

Like the other guy said, maybe the compression or springs are too stiff.

DO record your results. Starting with what you have right now, That way, you can revert back if you need to. Dont be afraid to make adjustments.

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[JasonHutter]

There are many adjustments that you can do to change how the truck handles. The shocks are just one way that you can do it, and they have many adjustments. Keeping track of all your adjustments is a very good idea, remember to make notes with those adjustments of the amount of the adjustment and what it did to the truck when driving. We have been having problems with our 7s kicking in the back. The way we found the problem was to video the truck as it goes by, I didn't see the problem until I had watched that tape over and over about 10 times probably. We found that we had put too much rebound dampening in, and by about the 3rd or 4th bump it would start to kick. The shock wasn't allowing the tires to drop fast enough, and we would really bottom it out after a few bumps.

Hope this helps,
Jason

[J_Dog]

Re: Was it kicking off due to bottoming out or too stiff, or too much psi in the bump stops?
It did not seem to be bottoming out and as far as psi in the bumps, we don't have air bumps on the truck.

Jason, we plan on video taping the truck next week when we test that should show a lot. We'll make a few adjustments and see what happens. Thanks, everyone for the info. I'll keep you posted on the results.

Jeff Matlock

[Volcom1095]

i do all the shock adjustments on my car its diffrent though its a 12/10 car not sure if there is a diffrence but we started having the porblem where the front was not keeping up with the rear also making it seem like the rear was kicking but actually it was the front not kicking enough once we got them both insync it leveled out real nice and flew really good. When adjusting try and work both front and rears dont only adjust rears cause then you get into the problem we had also make small adjustments start with 1/4 turns not full turns. We just built a bypass adjuster on the rear for the rebound and man its amazing how much 1/4 turn does, on that thing its like going from major chatter to major smooth ride everyone should have one.

[J_Dog]

Tested at Prairie City OHV Park today. Truck ran well. I had spoke with Lance at King Shocks prior to going and he gave me some good advice. We ended up loosening the rebound two turns on the front shocks. So far, it seemed a little better. May need another turn or two and maybe a little stiffer compression in the rear next time out testing. Thanks to all who replied with suggestions. For those with Kings, Lance was very helpful and took time out of his day to help a couple of new guys to the sport, great customer service. As far as having fun, I could not get the grin off my face all day.

Jeff Matlock

[Greg]

What kind of adjuster did you add? King, leDuc, etc?

Greg

[J_Dog]

Greg,
They are the King 2.5" bypass shocks (prerunner model) with one each of rebound and compression bypass tubes on them. They seem to work very well on the truck. We are still learning the truck and adjusting them, but they seem to make it pretty easy to tune. Lance, at King Shocks, was very helpful and informative when I called. He was willing to take time out of his day and explain some vehicle dymanics and shock adjustments to me. They seem to have good customer service for their products.

Jeff

[Greg]

I was asking 'cause I thought maybe you welded LeDuc adjusters on and those are super sensitive to adjustment, like 1/4 turn goes from "not enough" to "too much". I made a different style poppet valve that works wonders for those and was just wondering.

Greg